12 October 2006
<i><b>Update 12/10/06 19:30:</b> The flying instructor who died in the crash has been named as Tyler Stanger. Stanger owned a flying school in South California, and had apparently taught Lidle to fly.
It has also been disclosed that Lidle had 88 hours in his logbook, 47 as PIC</i>
Yesterday evening’s (UK time) dramatic news (see our story at the time <a href=”newsfeed.php?artnum=308″>here</a>) that a light aircraft had crashed into an apartment building in New York immediately brought parallels to 9/11, and that’s the tag line which the world’s media is giving the story.
However, it now seems certain that terrorism was not an issue.
The facts, as we understand them, are these. The aircraft was a Cirrus SR20, N929CD. It had two people on board. The passport of Cory Lidle, the aircraft’s owner and a pitcher with the New York Yankees baseball team, was found in the wreckage, and it is now almost certain that he was one of the occupants of the aircraft.
It is being reported that Lidle already had a pilot’s licence, which he gained in February this year. The nature of this flight is not known, but officials have tracked the aircraft’s flight from Teterboro – a popular GA airport in New Jersey, close to Manhattan Island – round the Statue of Liberty and up the East River. Radar contact was lost close to East 72nd Street. The flight started at 2.30pm local time; the crash occurred 12 minutes later.
There were reports that the second occupant of the aircraft was a flight instructor.
Early reports from the FAA say that a Mayday was received before impact (other, unconfirmed and not-yet-trustworthy rumours suggest fuel problems). More recent reports, however, say that the transmission of a Mayday cannot be confirmed.
An initial NTSB comment said that the majority of the aircraft, along with the bodies of the two occupants, was found in the street, with only the engine and its fittings inside the building. The Cirrus is fitted is equipped with a balistic recovery parachute. Clearly, it wasn’t deployed here.
The weather at nearby La Guardia airport shortly after the accident show winds from the east at 9 kt, visibility 9sm and OVC (overcast cloud) at 1,800 feet.
Lidle had apparently bought the aircraft in July this year; paperwork on handing over the registration documents was still pending.
The New York Yankees report that Lidle had been due to fly home yesterday. He had spoken about stopping off in Tennessee and Arizona on the way, expecting to arrive in South California on Saturday.
CNN has one witness on the ground who was a pilot: “I saw an airplane banking very, very steeply,” he said. “I said to myself, ‘That’s very odd for a light plane like that.”
Early reports that four people died in the crash and the ensuing fire have now been corrected: two people were in the 40th floor apartment of the Belaire Condo building, but they appear to have been able to escape. Otherwise, the building was evacuated safely, although 16 people – 11 of them firefighters – are said to have received minor injuries.
Join in the debate on our forums: <a href=’http://forums.flyer.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=26597′ target=’_blank’>forums.flyer.co.uk</a>
